SAN DIEGO
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The 16-year-old Lincoln High School student took the microphone and soon had nearly 400 people on their feet, applauding.

“We're here today because our community is broken in too many pieces,” LaChanae McAfee told the men, women, teens and children crowded onto a small soccer field in the Mountain View neighborhrhood of San Diego yesterday afternoon.

“Today is the day we're going to stand up. It makes no sense that people can't walk to school and have no peace. It makes no sense that people can't go to a bowling alley and go home in peace.”

McAfee organized a community march and rally in memory of her school friend Donnell Davis Jr., 15, and his friend Brandon Johnson, 16, who were shot to death March 16.

“I thought about making sure their deaths weren't in vain,” McAfee said before the rally at the Jackie Robinson YMCA's soccer field. “The violence has to stop. We have to let the youth know the community is behind the positive, not the negative.”

A joint funeral was held Thursday for Davis, of San Diego, and Johnson, of Lemon Grove. They were on their way home from bowling in Chula Vista when they were shot by someone in another car on state Route 54 in Bonita. Two other teens in their car survived. No arrests have been made.

Before the rally yesterday, about 250 marchers gathered at St. Stephen's Cathedral Church of God in Christ in Valencia Park for a short prayer and speeches from pastors, educators, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and others.

“I just want to say thank you to everybody who came out to support my son,” Keisha Davis said.

“My son was an awesome guy. It hurts me; I was trying to raise him to be an awesome man. It hurts because one day, he was going to make someone an awesome husband and an awesome father.”

Marchers chanted “Stop the violence, increase the peace” on the nearly two-mile trek west along Imperial Avenue through Lincoln Park. Many wore T-shirts made in memory of the teenagers. Motorists honked their horns and residents came out of their homes to watch the procession.

“We're tired of the violence,” said Pam Cleveland, whose son was killed in a drive-by shooting. “Enough is enough.”

At the rally, young people divided into small gups to list social problems they see around them, along with solutions. Problems included drugs, gangs and lack of parental education; solutions included after-school activities, church and political activism.

Michael Brunker, executive director of the YMCA, said residents are asked to return at 4 p.m. Friday and turn the solution lists into action plans.

“All this,” Brunker said, “is the power of one. One 16-year-old girl.”